Frank Pope says he intends to put his name forward for mayor of Norman Wells in the upcoming municipal election.
“I am getting kind of old, but I don’t want to leave my community in such a mess. I will be running again for mayor, just to help get my community through this terrible situation we’re in,” Pope told Cabin Radio, referencing low water levels which resulted in resupply barge cancellations, contributing to an increased cost of living.
“I think I am ready to stand up and work with my community, with a new council, to get over this hump.”
Nominations for mayor and council close on Monday.
Norman Wells, Inuvik, Hay River, Fort Smith and Fort Simpson are all preparing for elections on October 21. Nine hamlets will hold elections in December.
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‘Working with the people’
Pope has been involved with Norman Well’s town council on-and-off since 1985. He was first elected as mayor 20 years ago and later took on the role again in 2018.
Asked what had been the most memorable part about being mayor, Pope said: “Working with the people.”
“Trying to do things that they want to see done. We’re trying to improve our roads, the landfill and the picnic grounds just to keep people happy,” he said.
However, Pope stressed the town has bigger fish to fry.
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For the last several years, Pope has lobbied for the acceleration of the Mackenzie Valley Highway project, as residents in the Sahtu region cope with the impacts of high costs after summer barges were scrapped, leaving the town with a brief winter road to haul in resources.
Curbing cost of living
“The big job now is the cost of living. Working very hard with a new council to curb this cost of living. We don’t want to lose people, we want them to stay. We have got to find some good signals out there,” he said.
“We’ve got to speed up the process for the environmental assessment for the highway. This is just a stumbling block and we could see some signs that this highway is going to be built and built quickly, that we give the people some sense of security.”
Pope said he fears droughts and changing climate could lead to more barge cancellations in the future. In the meantime, he continues to advocate for solutions at the territorial and federal levels of government.
In a visit to Yellowknife last week, Pope, along with other Sahtu leaders, met with territorial cabinet ministers to seek “urgent action” on various challenges the region faces.
“The latest report we got is that we could be in drought conditions for many, many years to come. If we’re in drought conditions, we would have no barge service, a very short winter road season – and fly, fly, fly. Everything will be flown in,” he said.
“I don’t know if we can tolerate that. We have got to get some solutions.”
